PrepTest 134, Section 2, Question 11
A recent study revealed that the percentage of(23 more words not shown)
Each of the following, if(12 more words not shown)
- ABecause there are(21 more words not shown)
- BThe less friendly,(17 more words not shown)
- CAlthough large hospitals(26 more words not shown)
- DBecause space is(24 more words not shown)
- EDoctors at large(26 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Why would patients at the big urban hospitals recover less often? Perhaps those hospitals receive the most serious cases. Perhaps the patient populations differ in other ways, or the smaller hospitals provide some kind of better care. Those are possibilities to investigate, not conclusions the study has established.
Notice what the study actually reports: a lower percentage recover. That doesn't automatically mean everyone else dies. We need to explain the difference in recovery rates.
What we’re looking for
This is an EXCEPT question. Four choices will help explain why the rural hospitals have better results; one won't. A useful answer could identify an advantage of the smaller hospitals or a problem affecting the larger ones. The choice we select is the one that fails to provide such an explanation.
Working the answers
- A
Tailoring meals to individual dietary needs could help patients recover. This gives the smaller hospitals a specific advantage: fewer patients allow their nutritionists to provide more personalized meals. It offers a plausible reason for the higher recovery rate, so it isn't our exception.
- B
Stress from an impersonal hospital environment could make recovery more difficult. This supplies a disadvantage affecting patients at large hospitals and therefore helps explain their poorer results. It doesn't have to establish that every stressed patient fails to recover.
- CCorrect
This tells us what doesn't explain the difference: the prestige of the doctors' schools. Perhaps we'd expect the large hospitals to do better because they attract graduates of prestigious schools, but C removes that expectation without identifying a reason for worse results. We still need to know why patients at smaller hospitals recover more often.
- D
Sending patients home sooner after a procedure could leave less time to notice and respond to complications. The pressure to free up space supplies a possible disadvantage at the larger hospitals. That can contribute to an explanation even though it doesn't guarantee that earlier discharge harms every patient.
- E
Less time explaining medications can mean more opportunities for errors in how those medications are given or taken. This connects the doctors' larger patient loads with a plausible obstacle to recovery. Like A, it points to a difference in individual attention that could affect outcomes.
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